John Carter Cash—the only child of Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, and a producer, songwriter, and performer in his own right—was arrested after stripping down to his underwear at the Deer Lake Airport in Newfoundland in Canada Monday afternoon (10-27). John Carter had been in Newfoundland on a hunting trip. According to police reports, Cash appeared to be drunk during the incident, or “suffering from a medical condition,” but it was later determined that he was indeed intoxicated.

Deer Lake Police were called to the airport at about 2:10 PM on Monday by airport security. Security personnel had already convinced John Carter to put his clothes back on by the time police arrived on the scene, but Cash was still arrested and detained for a period stemming from the incident. Very few people witnessed the incident according to reports. Cash was apparently cooperative with police, and due to no prior arrests, no charges were filed against him. He was detained by police until Tuesday when he was declared sober, and reportedly caught a flight back to Tennessee where Cash lives.

John Carter Cash missed his initial flight back to Tennessee, but there’s been no word if the stripping incident caused him to miss his flight, or if he had already missed it when the incident occurred. Though it could be surmised that John Carter Cash’s stripping incident could have been the result of requests by security to remove personal objects for screening, no such information corroborating this scenario has been made available. John Carter Cash has not publicly acknowledged the incident at the time of this report.

John Carter Cash is a beloved member of the country and Americana music community, and is one of the principle representatives of the Johnny Cash estate. He has no significant prior run-ins with the law.

John Carter Cash has always struck me as a really nice, humble guy who sincerely wants to preserve and carry on the legacies of his father and The Carter Family name as best he knows how. This incident was unfortunate, but hopefully it will serve as a wake up call for Mr. Cash to receive whatever help he ultimately needs. Godspeed.

Not so fast Tom. When someone refers to a man’s “generation”, they are almost always talking about paternal ancestry; and since Johnny Cash’s dad wasn’t a performer, John Carter is a second generation performer.

For the love of all things holy, can we bury the lead any more? Nobody “wrote off the significance of the Carter Family.” As Clint accurately pointed out, unless you’re Jewish, the lineage of your family is traced through your father. That is why John’s last name is “Cash.” His given middle name is “Carter,” but that was given to him, not designated by custom. Nonetheless, to not “diminish” the entire legacy of The Carter Family with this stupid little story (which apparently I have the power to do, who knew?), I have removed the “second generation” qualifier to John Carter Cash’s name. Saving Country Music hopes it can recover from the impact of this gargantuan controversy, and apologizes to the legacy of The Carter Family for any harm done.

No need to get your shorts in a knot. I didn’t mean to offend; frankly I assumed it was an oversight.

But to answer your comments, and Clint’s, I’ve never heard of the patrilineal system being applied to someone’s vocation, and found none today after searching for it. Typically, patrilineality involves property, land or titles, not jobs.

Unless your job is being the king of a patrilineal society, of course.

I’m only talking about what Trigger most likely meant by “second generation performer”. Trigger wasn’t ignoring the Carter family, not am I. Like I said, references to what generation a man is (i.e. “third generation Texan”, “first generation American”, “second generation performer”) are almost always a reference to his father’s father’s father’s father etc.

I would just like to point out that the “Anything Goes” review was posted nine days ago, and is still receiving comments today. 448 at last count, while none of the reviews or journals that have gone up since then have topped 50 comments. I would also like to note that this article about John Carter Cash has more comments than the review posted just before it. This is just for all of you people who complain about the reviews and articles. carry on

So I’m not supposed to cover this story because we like him? I think that would be a double standard. And I respectfully disagree this isn’t music related. This story was already out there and all around before I decided to post it. I’d rather people read it here as opposed to Taste of Country. And who’s to say this moment is embarrassing? For all we know when the full story is told, John Carter could come across as a hero.

John Carter is kind of a low profile man, who has done a lot of really worthwhile things musically and personally. And it is truly remarkable for someone in country music
(or anything else, for that matter) to go 44 years without getting busted.

Now, all a lot of people will remember is that John Carter got arrested for stripping down to his underwear in the airport in Newfoundland.

And that is to be expected if you do that in the airport in Newfoundland. Or any other airport, I reckon. I do like the line in the original story that says that “he was declared sober”.

But Trigger, I am compelled to ask you how it is that you figure that somehow or another that could turn out well for him? How is it that he might turn out to be a hero?
I just gotta know!

Why is John Carter Cash “stripping” at a Canadian Airport, drunk or not? He just randomly decided to do it? It sounds like he was engaged with airline security agents when the incident occurred. Was he being asked to participate in an excessive search, including one that may have even resulted in him missing his flight, and decided to stand up for his rights to be secure in his person? I really have no idea. But that seems like a much more plausible scenario than John Carter Cash of all people getting drunk and stripping down to his skives for shits and giggles.

Maybe “hero” was not the right word, but now you know why I wanted to report this story and help give a little more perspective to the narrative surrounding it.